I want to thank MadeOfStars, fanHANNAH, iamwriter, KristieM, Andromeda03, flanmaja, StellaDiMaggiolino, anteffy1, Chasefan, acceb, Tennischica, BxBforever, bellechanteuse, CSI-4077 and GGjunkie33 for reviewing the first chapter. Here's the next one, enjoy...

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Brennan squinted against the sunlight that was pouring from between her curtains. There was a shrill sound invading her ears and for a while she didn't know what was going on. Finally she came to her senses and became conscious of her beeping alarm clock. Normally waking up early was easy for her, but now that she had tossed and turned the whole night it was almost unbearable. She had laid in the bed thinking about the relationship between Booth and her.

She finally gathered the energy to get up and start getting ready for the day. On her way to the bathroom she shook her head at her girlish behaviour. Since when had she started thinking about men like some teenager? She was a grown woman, she should do better than this. That was when she decided to handle things in a grown-up way. This was Booth after all, and she knew him. There was nothing to be afraid of.

When she was ready an hour later, she stepped out of her door in a confident manner. She would go see him tonight, after work.

--

Brennan stood outside his apartment and felt all her confidence slipping away. For some reason she was so nervous that her hands were actually sweating. She scoffed at the ridiculousness of the situation and knocked the door briskly. When Temperance Brennan made up her mind, there simply was no turning back.

When the door finally opened, it wasn't Booth that was standing in the doorway. It was a petite, blonde woman.

"Can I help you?" the smiling young woman asked.

Brennan frowned. "Is Booth here?" she asked slowly.

Brennan's scrutinizing gaze unnerved the woman a bit, but she tried to disguise it behind her friendly smile. "Yes, um, he's in the bedroom getting ready. I'm sure you can come inside and wait, if you'd like." She stepped aside to let her in, but Brennan didn't move.

"Are you his girlfriend?"

The woman gave an awkward laugh. Before she had a chance to say anything, Booth appeared from the bedroom, adjusting his T-shirt. When he saw the two women standing in the doorway, he halted.

"Hey… Bones. What, um, are you doing here?" he asked awkwardly.

Brennan suddenly felt embarrassed for showing up unannounced. She cleared her throat. "Nothing, I can see that you are busy." Feeling out of place, she resorted to professionalism. She turned to the woman. "I'm sorry I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan," she said and shook her hand. "Booth and I work together," she added out of habit.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Samantha Greene," the woman said, smiling brightly. "But everyone calls me Sam."

Brennan nodded. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Sam, but I'd better get going. Have a nice night." Without taking another look at Booth she turned and walked down the hall. When she reached the stairs, she heard Booth calling her name. She turned around and found Booth leaning out of his doorway.

"We'll talk tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure," she responded. And then he closed the door, and she was left in the hallway wondering how she had ended up making a fool of herself.

--

The next day she was working on the platform identifying a limbo victim, which was her usual task these days. Zack was working next to her, his own identification in process. After last night, Brennan had decided that today she would concentrate on work only. There was no room for personal issues in the lab.

She studied every single bone on the table meticulously. She spent the whole day identifying, not once taking a break. It was five o'clock when Angela decided to step in.

"Bren, you do realize that you haven't eaten anything the whole day, right?"

Brennan didn't look up from the rib bone she was holding. "Yes, Angela. It's fine, I had a big breakfast."

Angela sighed. "Yeah, you must be so full right now."

Brennan glanced at her briefly but didn't say anything.

"Fine. If you want to starve to death, go ahead." Angela waited for a reaction, but didn't get any. Finally she had had enough so she took the bone out of her friend's hand. Brennan had no chance to protest when Angela looked at her sternly. "Bren, what's wrong?"

She frowned. "What? Nothing's wrong."

"Don't give me that crap. I can see that you're not alright. You might as well just tell me now, because I'll find out eventually anyway."

Brennan sighed and rubbed her forehead with her wrist. "There's nothing wrong with me, quite the opposite in fact. I've identified four bodies from limbo today."

Angela just stared at her. After a while she sighed with resignation. "Okay. Obviously you don't want to tell me what's bothering you. But please know that whenever you want to talk to me about something, anything, I'll listen," she said gently, handing the bone she had been holding hostage back to her.

Brennan took the bone. "Of course, Ange," she responded softly. "That goes both ways."

Suddenly Hodgins ran up the stairs to the platform. "Come on, Ange. Are you ready to go?"

"Yes," she nodded. "Now, promise me that you won't stay here all night," she said to Brennan.

"I promise," she assured with a smile on her face.

After they had said their goodbyes, Hodgins and Angela walked toward the sliding doors of the lab. Brennan watched them leave, hand in hand and with happy looks on their faces. For a while she let her mind wander to her own love life. She'd never had such a deep relationship as her friends did. Her relationships with men had mostly been about sex, not about friendship or love. Maybe there just wasn't anyone for her out there.

She realized she had been staring at the door and quickly pulled herself together again, getting rid of the dark thoughts in her head. She decided to pack away the bones and go home early today. When she had gathered all her things, including some files in case she'd feel like doing paperwork at home, she headed out to her car. Once she got to the parking garage she fumbled with her car keys and all the folders she had been carrying scattered to the ground. She growled in frustration and bent down to pick them up.

"Need help?"

She jumped at the sound and was instantly alert, preparing herself for a fight if necessary. But when she turned her head to see who was talking to her, she relaxed again.

"What are you doing here, Booth?" she asked, still picking up the papers without looking up.

"I went to your office. When I got over the shock that you weren't there, I asked Stan and he told me you had just left," he explained, picking up a paper that had ended up further away from the others.

"Who is Stan?" she asked absentmindedly.

"Come on, Bones. Stan is one of your security guards. You know, you should really start learning people's names."

Once she had gathered all the papers in the right folders, she shoved them in the backseat of her car.

"Was there something you wanted?" she asked, still avoiding eye contact.

Booth placed the single piece of paper on top of the others, getting closer to Brennan in the process. She took an involuntary step back and immediately wondered why she was acting so strangely.

"No, I just thought I'd ask why you came by yesterday. Was it something important?" he asked casually.

She wasn't good at lying. She knew that, and tried to get as much sincerity in her voice as possible.

"No, not at all. I just came by to ask you to dinner, but you were busy, so…" she trailed off.

"Okay," Booth nodded.

"Is she your girlfriend? Samantha?" Brennan blurted out the question without thinking, and suddenly really wished she hadn't. She wasn't too keen on hearing the answer to that question.

Booth chuckled. "My girlfriend? No. This guy from work set me up on a blind date."

Although Brennan was oddly relieved by the answer, she was also irritated by Booth's casual attitude. She had finally caught up to her own reality and admitted to herself that she was having definite feelings toward Booth, and he was standing there laughing and telling about his date. She knew her thinking was completely irrational; there was no way he could know what had been on her mind lately. But still it bothered her. Shouldn't he be the gut guy?

Booth saw a flicker of frustration in her eyes and wondered if he had done something to piss her off. He decided to probe some more.

"I don't know if we'll see each other again. She wasn't really my type," he explained, looking at the ground.

Brennan caught herself before she could point out that blondes were usually his type and settled for a more neutral response.

"Well, it's none of my business." She slammed the car door she had been leaning on shut. "I'm going to head home now. Lots of paperwork," she pointed at the stack of folders in her car.

Booth observed Brennan's odd behaviour. She seemed distant and eager to get away from him. She didn't appear to be mad. Usually when she was mad she would make it perfectly clear, but now she was avoiding him. That was why he figured that it had to be something else, something bigger. He decided to let it drop for now and bring it up at another time.

"Okay. Good night, and drive safely."

"I will."

He turned around and walked out of the parking garage. Brennan got in the car and when Booth was out of sight, she buried her face in her hands. She was in way too deep now.